A tip of the hat Paul! Whenever I've come across Silfven's column I thought it was pretty good. This time of course it's wonderful.

By the way, I've taken the pledge: No more ameliorating. This is one of the 'ways to make wine' that came down to me unchallenged but that I've lately come to realize ain't necessarily so. Your case against it is persuasive.

On the other hand, another piece of the canon I've also reconsidered probably won't arouse your enthusiasm. The old way said to ferment dry and then just leave it alone. Now I'm not so sure that a little sweetening can't be beneficial. Rather than cane sugar though, I've been playing around with using the juice itself.

A small amount of the original juice can be set aside and prevented from fermenting by sulfiting and refrigerating. It can be racked too to remove leftover debris. When the rest of the juice has fermented out, a little of this can be blended in and prevented from fermentating by adding sorbate.

Sweetening this way has the virtue of preserving varietal character. Might that make it just a venial sin?

Dan, I'd say it ain't even a venial sin! I actually applaud your method - it's much better to re-sweeten the wine with actual unfermented juice, as opposed to cane sugar. I use cane sugar only for chaptalization and I don't mind it because the sugar gets completely converted to alcohol - there's none of it "left" in the wine, so to speak.

I think that up to 1% rs in a pure, well made labrusca wine is just fine, though my personal preference is for bone-dry.

By the way, Dan, how are your wines? Have you bottled everything from '05?

By the way, Dan, how are your wines? Have you bottled everything from '05?

Not yet. Everything has been racked at least twice. Some carboys aren't as clear as I would like, but overall nose and taste is promising. I go from carboys to one gallon jugs, and then to bottles as needed. Jugging usually gets done in early summer.

I do believe that trying malo on Concord is a very smart idea. However, if you cold-stabilize, you already lose a lot of tartaric, and if you do malo, the malic acid gets softened down - at which point you may have to keep an eye on pH. I disagree with them vis-a-vis the wine "needing" some sweetness in the end - this enters the realm of desired style. If the acidity is toned down by (1) malolactic fermentation and (2) precipitation of tartrates, then it will be much mellower than without either of these procedures having taken place.

It's like asking two paysans who makes the "best" cheese in their village or region ... they'd be arguing about it all day!

Paul B. wrote:At best, I just hope it gets more winemakers at least thinking about stepping outside the box with our native grapes and trying new styles.

Congratulations Paul,

Your passion has been rewarded by some well-deserved recognition. Glad to see the article. I hope to see you again at MoCool this summer and this time I will remember to bring the Wiederkehr's Cynthiana (norton) to the picnic for you to taste.

Tom N. wrote:I hope to see you again at MoCool this summer and this time I will remember to bring the Wiederkehr's Cynthiana (norton) to the picnic for you to taste.

Thanks, Tom! Seeing as I tried my first Norton and Cynthiana at MoCool, that would be continuing a tradition!

Of course, I really hope that the three-tier system becomes obsolete because then it would be much easier to have Missouri or Arkansas Norton shipped across the country and to enjoy it whenever visiting family or friends.

Cynthia Wenslow wrote:I've sent your webpages on dry Concord and dry Niagara to my father, Paul. Perhaps it will encourage him to try it!

Sure, Cynthia! But if he likes the sweet style, that's alright too, of course. I have admittedly been somewhat of a warrior for dry labrusca, but not to get people to stop making sweet or off-dry labrusca wine - it's been a battle against the view that labrusca wine must be sweet or else there's something inherently "wrong" with it; this is the view that I am opposed to.

Just a few points to add to this discussion for anyone reading who may wish to make the wine dry. Often it is said that labrusca should be sweet to counter "high acidity" from the grapes. I believe that there are two options that allow one to deal with acidity without compromising the purity and flavour concentration of the wine:

<li>cold stabilization - precipitation of tartrates</li><li>malolactic fermentation - conversion of sharp malic acid to lactic acid (also aids in stability)</li>
I'd love to see winemakers trying this combination while watching pH - instead of using residual sugar as a matter of dogmatic practice.